Rural Ireland. 1981. Nine-year-old Cait is sent away from her overcrowded, dysfunctional family to live with foster parents for the summer. Quietly struggling at school and home, she has learned to hide in plain sight from those around her. She blossoms in their care, but in this house where there are meant to be no secrets, she discovers one painful truth.
“Many’s the person missed the opportunity to say nothing…and lost much because of it.”
Truer words were never spoken to young Cáit (Catherine Clinch), the titular character in writer-director Colm Bairéad’s exquisite directorial feature film, “The Quiet Girl.” Cáit is a young, shy, introverted girl living with her estranged family in rural Ireland in 1981; her mother, father, and four siblings, with a sixth on the way. She has difficulty concentrating at school and home because she is extremely withdrawn and tends to move away from large gatherings. When the summer holidays arrive, her mother reaches out to her cousin Eibhlín (Carrie Crowley) and husband Seán (Andrew Bennett), who owns a farm, and asks if they would take Cáit for the summer months as they are awaiting the arrival of their new baby. They agree, and Cáit arrives on their doorstep, unsure of what to expect but utterly oblivious that she is about to experience the best summer of her young life.
“The Quiet Girl” is a contemplative, slow-moving drama, but it is worth the 94-minute runtime. As someone born and raised in Ireland during the movie’s timeframe, I could relate to much of what transpired. In her big-screen feature film debut, newcomer Catherine Clinch plays her part as emotionless until the film’s final poignant moments, when she finally breaks free of those restraints and experiences, for the first time, love and tenderness. But while she is phlegmatic for most of the film, you can sense her desperately wanting to love and be loved. Saying very little, her curiosity leads to her finding out that Eibhlín and Seán lost their only son in a tragic accident on their farm a few years prior, hence Eibhlín’s gradual attachment to Cáit.
We see a cut-scene of Eibhlín brushing Cáit’s hair, day after day, throughout the summer, her fingers running over her scalp, resulting in Cáit’s emotional and physical awakening, the desire to feel human touch, to know she is cared for, and, on some level, loved, even though it is not her own family. While Eibhlín is very forthcoming in nurturing Cáit, Seán is more reserved. He is not used to having a young girl around the house, but developing a good relationship with her takes time. Cleaning the milking parlor daily, she follows him and duplicates his actions, resulting in him appreciating her effort and prompting him to meet her in the middle. As the summer progresses, the house comes alive. Laughter, conversation, and song fill the house like never before, but it is short-lived after Cáit’s mother calls Eibhlín to say she’s had her baby and they can bring Cáit home.
Director Colm Bairéad takes his time telling his story, and the wait is worth every frame. He deliberately prolongs the film, anticipating Cáit, in the film’s finale, to open her mouth and say what she really feels, but when she doesn’t, you find yourself talking to her on the screen and telling her to do what her heart desires. While she cares for her immediate family, her heart and soul belong to Eibhlín and Seán, the two most compassionate and understanding people ever to enter her young life. The final shot in the movie is heart-warming as she finally expresses her feelings to Seán, and when the screen goes black, leaving everything open-ended, while she may never get to live with them, at least she tells them what they mean to her, not just through her gentle, whispered words, but through her adolescent, evolving temperament. “The Quiet Girl” is one of the year’s best movies, and I highly recommend it.
In Theaters Nationwide Friday, February 24th
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